SOLICITORS GROUP SAYS COURT PARKING ‘RECIPE FOR DISASTER’
THE lack of adequate car parking at the new BAM-owned Courthouse in Wygram is a ‘recipe for disaster’ and ‘ a threat to public safety’, according to the President of the Wexford Solicitors Bar Association Martin Lawlor.
‘It’s not adequate and there will be a serious incident there some day’, Mr. Lawlor warned as the newest court building in Ireland and the largest outside of Dublin, built under a Public Private Parntership arrangement , opened for criminal, civil and family law sittings.
Parking within the grounds of the new court complex is reserved for staff, judges and state solicitors and the only public parking is either on-street or in a 50-space temporary County Council car park on a plot of land in Belvedere Road known as the ‘Christmas Tree’ site where a permanent car park is to be developed alongside six planned social - houses. There is no reserved - parking for memberss of An Garda Siochána or barristers or solicitors.
Mr. Lawlor said the impact of a large amount of traffic descending on the area for a starting time of 10.30 am where people don’t realise there is no public parking available is a ‘recipe for disaster and more importantly a threat to public safety’.
Based on figures from Ardcavan where the Court Service rented premises for the past decade, he said over 100 cars are usually present during the busiest period from 10 am to 1 pm and on a Wexford Circuit Court day, when a jury panel is required to attend, there can be as many as an extra 100 cars,
‘If both the District Court and the Circuit Court are sitting, this could mean an influx of 200 to 250 cars in the Belvedere Road area. That’s when the fun will start, when you’ll have cars parking on the green area and in front of drive-ways. It will be mayhem’.
There are 10 to 15 District Court legal practitioners in Wexford and up to 20 barristers can also be in attendance when the Circuit Court is in session, This is on top of up to 30 Garda witnesses at a District Court sitting and an average of 15 gardai at a Circuit Court session.
‘ The volume of paper required to run cases nowadays is voluminous and it is simply not practical to have two or three boxes of files being carted from a distance away, in Hill Street, for example, especially in wet weather’, said the association president.
Plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses are also required to attend with 15 to 20 cases typically listed on a Civil Court day and an average of 20 cases for courts dealing with financial matters.
Months before construction work on the building was completed, the Wexford Solicitors Bar Association wrote to Wexford County Council Chief Executive Tom Enright expressing concern in advance about the parking situation and pointing out that the proposed 50-space car park at Belvedere Road would be completely inadequate. A few months ago, Mr. Lawlor received a telephone call from the local authority, outlining the plan for the ‘car park’ on the Christmas Tree site. He said one of the difficulties is that BAM was simply asked to build a courthouse and staff facilities, not car parking. BAM retains ownership and management of the building which is used by the Court Service for an annual fee.
Residents in streets around the courthouse strongly objected to the development during the planning process, arguing that it was out of scale for the area and would change the whole dynamic of the locality.. One of their concerns was the increase in traffic that the court building would bring.
The Office of Public Works was granted planning permission for the €10 million project on the old Municipal Buildings site in 2010.